Ohio Republicans want to make June 24 ‘Life Day’ in honor of decision overturning abortion rights

A group of Ohio Republican state senators want to designate June 24 “Life Day” in Ohio, in honor of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning national abortion rights on that date this year.

Ohio Senate Bill 352 is sponsored by state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, with co-sponsors including state Sens. Niraj Antani, Louis Blessing, Andrew Brenner, Jerry Cirino, Theresa Gavarone, Frank Hoagland, Jay Hottinger, Terry Johnson, George Lang, Rob McColley, Sandra O’Brien, Kristina Roegner, Mark Romanchuk, and Tim Schaffer.

That’s 15 Republican members out of 25 in the chamber.

The U.S. Supreme Court held in its June 24 ruling that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

In Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost raced to the courthouse the day Dobbs was announced and a restrictive state law that was passed in 2019 was in force by that evening.

Under the law, abortions were suddenly illegal after about six weeks of pregnancy — four months earlier than they had been and at a point which about a third of women and girls don’t yet know they’re pregnant. The law, Senate Bill 23, allows limited exceptions to protect mothers’ lives and health, but it makes no exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

A Hamilton County judge in October blocked Ohio’s abortion ban indefinitely as a lawsuit against it proceeds.